1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a form output control apparatus, a form output control method, and a computer readable program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computerization of documents, popularization of networks, and dramatic increase in capacity of storage devices have progressed. Documents can be collectively managed on a server and accessed by a plurality of users. Also, sharing and centralization of information have progressed. What is called a “one-source multi-use” strategy for processing and utilizing information managed by a server or the like in various situations has become widespread.
Against this background, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-24021 discusses a form output function of automatically creating a format, a catalog, and presentation data by inserting a plurality of pieces of different data managed in common, into a common template.
However, according to the conventional form output function, data is automatically applied to a prepared template. Thus, redundant output results are frequently produced. For example, generally, in trade catalogs, to strongly attract attention to products themselves, only annotation symbols are added to descriptions of each trade product as to less important annotations, and annotations and additional information are collectively indicated in a section other than such descriptions. However, in a case where catalogs are created by performing the form output function, annotations and additional information are output corresponding to each product, because the annotations and the additional information are related to the products. Consequently, less important information is repeatedly indicated.
Accordingly, the form output function has a drawback in that because it is necessary to manually correct automatically output results in certain instances, advantages of variable data outputting (also referred to simply as variable outputting) may not be optimally utilized.